The Groups For The $23 Million 'Dota 2' International Tournament Have Been Drawn

The International is the biggest esports event of the year.Credit: Valve

The biggest esports event in history is due to kick off in a couple of days. 18 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world will compete at The International, the annual world championship, with the winners becoming $10 million richer. The mammoth $23 million prize pool, which is still growing, is the largest ever seen in esports, so the competition is expected to be incredibly close.

With so many teams heading over to Seattle and only a few days of the main event at the Key Arena, a group stage will be hosted this week to decide the teams that will start in the upper bracket, those that will start in the lower bracket and finally the two unlucky teams that won't even make it to the main event.

The teams have been split into two groups of nine. Each team will play the other teams in their group in a best of two. The four with the best record at the end will go to the upper bracket. The next four will go into the lower bracket and finally the last place team will be eliminated in joint last place. But fear not, they will still take home at least $57,000.

All in all the draw seems to be pretty fair. Some are complaining that having four directly invited teams in Group 2, in the form of Invictus Gaming, Newbee, Virtus.pro and OG, gives teams in Group 1 an advantage. But if recent form is anything to go by then Group 1 is just as tough as Group 2. Many believe that Team Secret were deserving of an invitation and the two SEA teams of Fnatic and TNC Pro Team have been looking very good recently as well.

These groups will get underway on Wednesday, August 2nd, and will run until August 5th. As there is so many matches to be played throughout the group stage, four different matches will be played at the same time. Fortunately Valve has brought in a lot of top casters to bring you the action from every match.

Once the group stage has been completed the action shifts to the Key Arena in Seattle on August 7th. The main event then runs until August 12th when the final, which will decide who goes home $10 million richer, takes place.

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